Burton, pp 63-5 , has brief descriptions for Manchester & Oldham

The colour painting by Alexander Wilson was auctioned in June 2007 at Bonhams for £20,000, the colour image takes you to a superb Flash version of the picture. NB If the colour image does not appear then the link is dead.
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A Lancashire Rushcart: print from Burton Alexander Wilson's colour picture, 1821 Manchester had no rush-cart of its own, but every year a number of carts visited the town from the outtownships, some coming as far as from Oldham and Rochdale. They were always looked forward to, and liberally treated, and the inhabitants had thus the oportunity of inspecting the rival carts, and criticising the proficiency or otherwise of the morris-dancers who accompanied them. The accompanying view of such a scene is taken from a fine picture, painted by Alexander Wilson, in 1821 (formerly in the posession of Mr Roger Wilson, od Woodford, Cheshire), representing a rush cart in Long Millgate, Manchester.{Reproduced also in Proctor's "Memorials of Manchester Streets," 1874, pp36-7}. The canvas is studded with characteristic figures, inclusive of the artist himself (his bandaged foot requiring temporary crutches), the Rev. Joshua Brookes, and Gentleman Cooper, the tall, enthusiastic pedestrian who walked to Doncaster and home again, during forty successive years for the pleasure of witnessing the exciting race for the St. Leger stakes. In addition to these, there is Mr John Ogden, the grocer, vignetted through his shop window, and a full-length, portly boniface in the centre, Mr. Henry Slater, of "The Bay Horse Tavern." In the heart of the crowd a sweep, astride on a pig, upsets a man engaged in carrying beer who in turn capsizes an optician bearing a weather-glass marked "much rain". Taking advantage of the uproar, a thief is extracting from the pocket of a dandy a packet of billet doux. Some of the curious devices born at the rush-bearing are depicted, and it is noticeable that the morris-dancers are represented in trousers instead of knee-breeches, and wearing the curious helmet-shaped hats occasionaly worn by morris-dancers instead of straw hats. Wilson's picture perpetuates a scene that was of very frequent occurence in Manchester during a long series of years. But the Irish, taking offense at some orange-coloured lilies adorning a rush-cart, fell upon the dancers and dispersed them, a proceeding which occured on several subsequent occasions, and led to a discontinuance of the visits of the rush-carts.

morris dancers hat On the 31st August, 1882, a rush-cart from Oldham came to Manchester, and paraded the principal streets about five o'clock in the afternoon. It was made of an ordinary two-wheeled cart. The angles were feathered, and formed of rods about an inch thick, the tops projecting about a foot, and painted blue. On the top of the cart, almost hidden by a great bough of oak, was a little man with a very dirty face, and wearing a red jacket. The sides of the cart were plain, on the back, “V.R.,” formed of yellow flowers, stuck in the rushes. The front was covered with a clean white cloth, on which were fastened several watches, a tea-urn, and three large silver salvers, besides several silver cups, cream jugs, a teapot, and spoons. The cart was drawn by a grey horse in the shafts, decorated with flowers and ribbands. From the ends of the shafts were two long ropes, kept apart by seven “swingle-trees” or “stretchers” (wooden poles which keep the chains asunder behind a chain horse), to each of which were three young men, dressed in their every-day clothes. These assisted the horse in drawing. There was a band of music, a banner, and then five boys dressed up, two with straw hats trimmed with flowers, the other three with large caps resembling helmets (as shown), formed of lathes, and covered with ribbons and rosettes. They had knotted handkerchiefs tied to their wrists, and danced the morris to the two usual rush-cart tunes. There were also a boy with a wooden box to receive money, and a great carter, armed with an immense whip, who preceded the procession and produced a series of loud cracks with his whip. There was no fool.

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